Friday, June 13, 2014

I was fortunate enough to be invited to draw at the Scarsdale Country Club. It was an event sponsored by FIT. I love to get out of the studio and draw but usually it just never happens, I'm too busy with "paying the bills" stuff or I find a million reasons not to. Being back in school has forced me to rethink that and get my drawing chops back in shape. Little by little I feel myself getting more confident with pen and ink.

I've been making some headway on some sample art for a manuscript I wrote a few years ago. "The Peculiar Zebra" is kind of a labor of love. It's message is about self acceptance even when you feel like you don't quite fit in. I showed my dummy and sample spreads to my rep and she had some really good feedback in general. She felt the story needed more work before she could show it to publishers. So I put it on the side for now. I still love this story and hope to one day revisit it. The feedback form friends (and my teacher Rudy G.) has really made me feel like I should continue with it. It's been very important for me to explore writing and illustrating stories that resonate deeply to me. Writing is a lot like drawing, you have to grab it when it presents it's self. Sometimes an idea can sit with me for a while but eventually, if it's really strong, it will get written. Sometimes I write a story and it's simple and fun, other times it's more poetic and spiritually driven. The Peculiar Zebra started out poetic but somehow feels like a bit of both now. Here's the samples I have so far...who knows what's next.